Stuttgart Ballet’s appearance in Melbourne comes thanks to The Australian Ballet, under whose banner Stuttgart’s Sleeping Beauty is being performed while TAB is tied up with its tour to the United States with Christopher Wheeldon’s Oscar. It’s a delectable gift. Marcia Haydée, John Cranko’s indispensable muse during his transformative artistic leadership of Stuttgart in the 1960s and early 1970s,…
Category: Dance
Bespoke, Queensland Ballet. Talbot Theatre, Thomas Dixon Centre, Brisbane, October 2, 2026.
A bespoke item is one made specially for a person. It’s tailored to suit and fit. That’s what the word means, full stop. But that’s only half the picture for Queensland Ballet’s annual program of new work. There are expectations that go significantly beyond a great fit. In 2023, for instance, the promise was that Bespoke would…
Triptych. Lewis Major Projects. The Studio, Sydney Opera House, September 16, 2026
I’d see this show again in a heartbeat. If they’d announced a performance of Triptych was to start immediately after the one I saw in Sydney I’d have been elbowing people out of the way to be first in line. True, the whole thing is only 60 minutes long and time passes so swiftly you’d swear you’d…
Macbeth. West Australian Ballet, His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth, September 9, 2026
Sex, violence, fabulous frocks, industrial-strength design and a banging score: what’s not to like about Alice Topp’s Macbeth? Topp has wanted to make this ballet for a long time and at last one can see where she’s been heading with that super-intense, tightly woven, frankly erotic partnering she likes so much and does so fearlessly….
Flora. The Australian Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre. The Regent, Melbourne, March 12. Sydney until April 18, 2026.
I saw Flora at its premiere in Melbourne in March and was struck anew by the breadth of artistic director David Hallberg’s vision for The Australian Ballet. Hallberg’s counterpart at Bangarra Dance Theatre, Frances Rings, is his equal in daring. Both companies are leading forces in Australian dance but would seem to be strange bedfellows. Stylistically and…
Code of Conduct. Australasian Dance Collective. Level 20, 300 George St, Brisbane. March 19, 2026
Code of Conduct is pungently sited on the 20th floor of a Brisbane office block. Look out the windows and a shiny city full of possibilities beckons; inside it’s all concrete, low ceilings and regrettably basic equipment. If not for the smart suits worn by the Code of Conduct dancers you could easily imagine this as a prison rec…
Songs of the Bulbul. Aakash Odedra Company, Sydney Opera House, January 28, 2026
You hear it a lot in foyers. “A short show’s a good show” we cry before heading into the auditorium. It’s shorthand, if you will, for the knowledge that we don’t be detained too long if a terrible performance lasts only 90 minutes or so without interval. It’s kind of a joke but not a…
Prism. The Australian Ballet, Regent Theatre, Melbourne, September 25. Sydney from November 7.
The contemporary triple bill Prism starts its Sydney season on November 7, after which, just for something completely different, The Australian Ballet will dive back into David McAllister’s blingy, ultra-traditional The Sleeping Beauty. It started its national run in Adelaide in July and had a Brisbane season in August. It goes without saying the company is versatile. That’s…
Bad Nature, Australasian Dance Collective, Club Guy & Roni, Studio Boris Acket and HIIIT, Brisbane Powerhouse, September 3, 2025
Two years ago I was at the 2023 Brisbane Festival to see Salamander, the astonishing dance-theatre-visual arts piece by British choreographer and director Maxine Doyle with an extraordinary design by superstar Es Devlin. The dancers were from Brisbane-based Australasian Dance Collective, an organisation that may be small in size but huge in aspiration and achievement….
INDance. Neilson Studio, Sydney Dance Company, August 15 and 22, 2025
Sydney Dance Company’s INDance, now in its fourth year, is a small festival that presents already existing – although relatively new – works in SDC’s black-box Neilson Studio. It’s a pick’n’mix program. Casts tend to be small, there’s not a lot in the way of fancy lighting or sets that knock your socks off. This…
